Tag Archives: Fountainville

There is Always Something to See if I Open My Eyes

150119_Fungus on Cherry Tree by . Fuji X-T1, XF18-135mm @ 135mm, f/8.0, 1/280 sec, ISO 800

Photography has taught me to open my eyes, look around, and enjoy what each moment brings.  Walking around our back yard with Karen, I saw this fungus growth on one of our cherry trees.  It caught my eye and made me think of the symbiotic nature of life.  I stopped long enough to compose this image and enjoy the moment.  I then continued a wonderful walk with Karen.  It was a good day!

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Just Playing in Our Garden and on My Computer

141231_Garden Color-Experimentation by . Fuji X-T1, XF18-135mm @ 135mm, f/22, 14 sec, ISO 200

I keep going back to our Red Twig Dogwoods to get a little winter color.  This is a vertical swipe taken at 1/4 second.  Back at my computer, I started playing around with Topaz’s new Impression plug-in. This is the Impasto II preset.  There is a painter somewhere inside this engineer’s mind.

This post is a milestone.  I have entered a post every day for this month, first time ever.  Now to get ready for the New Year!

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End of the Year Color

141230_Garden Color by . Fuji X-T1, EF18-135mm @ 135mm, f/5.6, 1/350 sec, ISO 800

I took a little walk in our backyard to capture a little remaining color and try out my new Fuji 18-135mm lens.  The Heucheras in our flower beds are still holding on to their last color.  So, I looked around to find something interesting to put in front of them.  I found this wilted Japanese Maple branch as a candidate.  There was quite a little breeze so I needed to use a high ISO to freeze the motion of the branch.  I find there is always something interesting if I am patient and let the image appear.

I think I am going to like the 18-135 as my primary “walk around – go light” lens.

 

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Exercise in Color Composition

140628_Color Composition by © 2013 Karl Graf. Fuji X-T1, XF55-200mm @ 105mm, f/11, 1/60 sec. ISO 200

This image is an attempt to just work with color and composition.  The deep pink and the adjacent dark green provided a strong color contrast as did the bright yellow and the adjacent dark green.  The round clump of pink flowers in the upper right corner was balanced somewhat by the white flowers in the lower left corner.  The diagonal strips of yellow and green provided the center focus.

 

 

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Spring: Ginko and Cherry Tree

140509_Ginko & Cherry Tree by 2013 Karl Graf. Fuji XT-1, XF55-200mm @ 90.4mm, f/8.0, 1/800 sec, ISO 500

This image was taken looking out our dining room  window.  I noticed how the emerging leaves of the Ginko were contrasted against the deep pink of a flowering cherry.  I varied the depth of field to get a pleasing combination of sharpness of the Ginko and a blur of the background cherry.

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Spring: More Cherry Blossoms

140604_Cherry Blossoms_Texture by 2013 Karl Graf. Fuji X-T1, XF 18-55mm @ 42.5mm, f/5.6, 1/100 sec, ISO 800

I simplified this image by isolating one clump of blossoms and shooting against the deep green grass background.  I used Color Efex Pro to extract detail in the blossoms without affecting the background.  I finally used a simple texture on the background.

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Spring: First Cherry Blossoms

140503_First Cherry Blossoms by © 2013 Karl Graf. Fuji XT-1, XF18-55mm @ 35.8mm, f/3.6, 1/480 sec, ISO 500

What would spring be without cherry blossoms.  This image was taken on the first day that the blooms popped out of the tight buds.  We have seven flowering cherries in our yard.  They are my favorite spring highlight.  When the cherries bloom, spring is really here.  I worked the aperture setting to come up with the optimum setting to capture the sharpness of the first group of flowers and blur the background flowers.  They were hard to separate with a standard length zoom lens.

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Spring: Raindrops

140501_Redbud & WaterDrops by © 2013 Karl Graf. Fuji XT-1, XF60mm F2.4R Macro @ 60mm, f/4.0, 1/210 sec, ISO 400

We have had a downpour of rain for the past two days.  One good thing about rain is raindrops.  So, this mornings shoot focus was to try to capture them.  The day was cloudy so I could not capture the sunlight starbursts or the bokeh.  It was still a nice morning walk and shoot in the garden.  It was a gift.

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Spring: Looking Through

140430_Japanese Maple Trunk by 2013 Karl Graf. Fuji XT-1, XF55-200mm @ 156mm, f/5.6, 1/75 sec, ISO 200

Experimentation … does this work?  I am not sure.  The intended subject was the trunk of the Japanese Maple as viewed through the emerging red leaves.  The RAW image was very flat.  When I added contrast, the colors of the leaves and grass made the overall image look gaudy.  I toned it down with a B&W layer at about 50% opacity.  It still looks too busy for me.  Next time I will try a shorter depth of field, get closer to the leaves and focus on a smaller area of the trunk.

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Spring: Dawn Redwood Cone & Forsythia

140429_DawnRedWood & Forsythia by 2013 Karl Graf. Fuji X-T1, XF55-200mm @ 200mm, f/4.8, 1/1500 sec, ISO 200

This image follows the approach shown in my last two posts.  Here I used the bright yellow of the flowering Forsythia along the back fence line as a background to force the viewers eye to the small 1/2″ Dawn Redwood Cones.  There is something interesting around every turn in our garden.

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